Exploring Yoga Philosophy - Yama’s and Niyama’s
Content note: Brief mentions of spiritual traditions, religious philosophy, and autistic demand avoidance.
Read time: 4-5 minutes
I have always loved exploring the philosophies different traditions, and I have personally benefitted from Buddhist, Taoist, Druid, and Yogic philosophies. I have also attended Christian study courses and interfaith conferences, where there is also great wisdom if one takes the time to delve deeper into the meaning and interpretation of scriptures, rather than just taking them at surface level.
The Yamas and Niyamas of yoga are wise guides which can help us to live a more peaceful life. There are cross overs and similarities with the Mindfulness principles and the Reiki principles, which I am sure that I will discuss at some point. Perhaps for those with demand avoidance within their autistic profile, myself included, these might feel a little like demands. Rest assured though, they are not. They are more invitations to reflect and consider what these mean on a deeper level, how they interact with one another, what they mean within our own lives, and if we could apply some of the wisdom to enhance our own lives and how we experience the world around us.
The Yamas are ethical guides for life, focusing on social (external) restraints and how to interact with the world around us. The yamas, despite being external, are not about trying to impress others morally, the focus is still on a personal journey to reduce the friction within ourselves. It is learning to think, speak, and act in a way which is most aligned with who we are and our own moral compass, because every time that we act against that our nervous system pays for it.
The Yamas are:
Ahimsa - Non-Violence
Satya - Truthfulness
Asteya - Non-Stealing
Brahmacharya - Right use of energy, moderation
Aparigraha - Non-greed, non-possessiveness
The Niyamas are about internal observations, leading us to living a moral life and supporting us in understanding how to relate to ourselves and to others.
The Niyamas are:
Saucha - Purity & Cleanliness
Santosha - Contentment
Tapas - Austerity & Self-Dicipline
Svadhyaya - Self-Study & Study of Sacred Texts
Ishvara Pranidhana - Surrender ot Devotion to a higher power.
The first of the Yamas, the very first principle of yogic practice and the most important of all, is Ahimsa or Non-Violence. There feels something very significant about this, but what does it mean when we look deeper into it? Over the next five weeks, I will introduce you to each of the Yamas, looking at them in more depth, and later in the year I will discuss the Niyamas.
A dandelion seed head against a pink and blue hazy background.
